Ordos bronze plaque 500 BCE

August 22, 2023

Ordos bronze plaque 500 BCE - 200 CE

In the year 10 CE the new King of Jushi, Xuzhili, tried to defect to the Huns but was found out and killed by the Xin Dynasty's protectorate governor of the region. Xuzhili's older brother, Hulanzhi, successfully escaped with 2,000 men and all the animal herds from Jushi. The Xiongnu accepted them in. Together they returned and attacked the Chinese officials in the region. The next year many of the states in the Western Regions revolted against the Xin Dynasty's rule. The protectorate governor who killed Xuzhili was killed by rebelling Yanqi. The Yanqi seem to have been an Indo-European people in the Tarim Basin who may have contributed to the ancestry of the Tocharians.

Emperor Wang Mang decided to break the Xiongnu into 15 states so they couldn't be a threat anymore, but it was too late. The Xiongnu had already overran many places such as the Yishou Pass at Yunzhong, the Yanmen Pass, Shuofang, etc and killed the magistrates and commanders. Wang Mang planned to raise an army of 300,000 troops to fight off the Xiongnu but China didn't have the resources to support these troops. According to Zizhi Tongjian, China already had an empty national treasury by the year 2 BCE. The Chinese general Yan You protested Wang Mang's plan as impossible due to resource shortages and the natural disasters (droughts, famines, floods, locusts) facing their kingdom. Wang Mang ignored him.

From the Book of Han on the year 12 CE: "Since the time of Emperor Xuan, several generations of people had not seen beacon warnings at the northern frontier. The area prospered, and the population grew. After Wang Mang aggravated the Xiongnu, the people either died or were enslaved. Within a matter of years, the northern frontier became a wasteland, and the countryside was strewed with bones and remains".

According to the Book of Han, by the year 14 CE there were famines around China's border regions so severe that people were forced to resort to cannibalism. In order to survive, Chinese civilians left the border regions and sold themselves as slaves and maids to people in the interior provinces. Wang Mang didn't want the borders abandoned and issued the death penalty for anyone harboring these border exiles.

By 17 CE the Chinese had had enough of Wang Mang's rule. The Western Regions had been lost. China would not retake with the Western Regions for another 65 years. The northern frontier was in ruins and the core of the nation was in a state of civil war by various rebel groups such as the Red Eyebrows (Chimei Uprising) and the Lulin rebels. Mang was killed in 23 CE, ending the Xin Dynasty, but the Han Dynasty would not be reinstated until 37 CE because of the various rebel factions vying for control.

When Mang was killed, a Han envoy (Chen Zun) met with Chanyu Yu. Yu boasted of the Xiongnu's rebellion: "'Han went through a major upheaval when Wang Mang usurped the throne. We sent armies to attack Mang, creating a void at the border. We incited the people in All-Under-Heaven to rise in revolt, and we made the people reminisce on the former Han. Wang Mang lost in the end, and Han is now enjoying a revival; it was entirely due to our efforts; the Han court should pay respect to us'. Zun rebuffed and debated with the Chanyu at length; the Chanyu obstinately asserted his claim."

-Wars with the Xiongnu, a translation from Zizhi Tongjian, by Joseph P. Yap

-The Western Regions, Xiongnu, and Han: from the Shiji, Hanshu, and Hou Hanshu, translated by Joseph P. Yap

Ordos bronze plaque 500 BCE - 200 CE. 3 1/4 x 5 3/8 in.

This style of artwork appeared in Saka Scythian artwork also so they have a common origin. The above bronze is badly degraded, but probably would have looked similar to this one, with each of its indented pockets containing red or turquoise gemstones. This particular example is from Southern Siberia, roughly between 500-200 BCE.